Building a house, how small is too small?

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Note that we sloped the front deck away from the house 1" over the 6 feet width (but level over the 16 foot length). This is considered best practice for draining water away from the house...1/8" to 1/4" for every foot. So we just spun the laser over to the posts and marked down 1" from there.

I've always figured that water will drain between the deck boards so I never sloped any decks that I built.

[Fermion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Lover I've always figured that water will drain between the deck boards so I never sloped any decks that I built.

Probably true. I was worried I might noticed a 1" drop though and I don't notice it at all so I guess it doesn't hurt anything to do it.

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Probably true. I was worried I might noticed a 1" drop though and I don't notice it at all so I guess it doesn't hurt anything to do it.

I might have noticed a 1" drop on the deck (or maybe not) but I probably would have been more concerned with other people noticing and thinking that I built my deck crooked

[sengsational]

I think I read in one of those "build your own deck" how-to books, they do recommend the slope, but I also wondered why, given the gaps. I'm using existing structure, so don't need to make that decision.

[skyking1]

It helps get water off the substructure too.

[Fermion]

Everything I have read recommends 1/8" to 1/4" per foot but several sites do say you don't need a slope if your deck has gaps and the boards are oriented parallel to the house.

I think we will still do the slope on the back deck like we did on the front, even though we have spaced the boards apart according to the Fiberon specs (3/16" gap). That small of a slope I can't see visually or feel when walking on the deck. Heck, maybe in a snow storm/freeze the gaps can get frozen and then you could get melt water on top of them...I dunno

[pb4uski]

The genius that built my deck (part of the house that we bought) decided that it would be cool to put the decking on a 45 degree angle. A real pain to sweep, shovel snow off, etc.

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski The genius that built my deck (part of the house that we bought) decided that it would be cool to put the decking on a 45 degree angle. A real pain to sweep, shovel snow off, etc.

I shovel and sweep my deck in every different direction...the direction the boards run has no effect on how the job turns out.

[NgineER]

I think that Fermion's decision to slope the deck away from the house is a good one. I think everyone would agree that sloping it towards the house would be a bad idea.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Everything I have read recommends 1/8" to 1/4" per foot but several sites do say you don't need a slope if your deck has gaps and the boards are oriented parallel to the house. I think we will still do the slope on the back deck like we did on the front, even though we have spaced the boards apart according to the Fiberon specs (3/16" gap). That small of a slope I can't see visually or feel when walking on the deck. Heck, maybe in a snow storm/freeze the gaps can get frozen and then you could get melt water on top of them...I dunno

Are you going to put a water drainage system under the deck joists, so that the area under the deck is rain free ?

[Fermion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset Are you going to put a water drainage system under the deck joists, so that the area under the deck is rain free ?

Both decks will have roofs with gutters...not sure what a under deck drainage system is?

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Both decks will have roofs with gutters...not sure what a under deck drainage system is?

Just what I was thinking. The roof makes the slope much less important. I like your design...to have several covered outdoor areas.

[finnski1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Everything I have read recommends 1/8" to 1/4" per foot but several sites do say you don't need a slope if your deck has gaps and the boards are oriented parallel to the house. I think we will still do the slope on the back deck like we did on the front, even though we have spaced the boards apart according to the Fiberon specs (3/16" gap). That small of a slope I can't see visually or feel when walking on the deck. Heck, maybe in a snow storm/freeze the gaps can get frozen and then you could get melt water on top of them...I dunno

I have a 6 foot wide farmers porch on my house and sloped it 1" total as well.
My floor boards are normal to the house so the water can run right down them. I do however also have a roof and gutter on it so who knows if I needed to slope them. As someone said earlier better to slope away than towards the house

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Both decks will have roofs with gutters...not sure what a under deck drainage system is?

I think that they might be talking about somethng for higher decks that wouldn't apply in the case of your deck since it is so low to the ground.

We have a deck that is 7-8' above grade and we also use the area under the deck. So while the deck itself is level we installed corrugated plastic panels under the deck joists and those are beveled away from the house so rainwater that falls on the deck and drips through the gaps between the deck boards then falls on the the panels and drains away from the house. It also provides for dryer storage for stuff that we store under the deck.

At one point we were thinking of putting a hot tub under the deck but haven't done it yet.

[Fermion]

Our back deck is pretty high....about 12 to 13 feet off the ground.

Speaking of back decks, we started on it this week and got the poles, beam and joists installed.

The beam was constructed of three 2x10 16 foot long pressure treated boards...it was heavy after we bonded them together. We used a trick with the wall jacks to allow us to crank it up to the top of the posts easy as pie and safe. Those wall jacks, which were less than $100 at Menards, are just amazingly useful.

This back deck will have a roof on it, that is the next step.

[pb4uski]

Ah... I thought that we were talking about the deck pictured on post #217.

Do you have any plans to use the area under the deck? Perhaps a patio underneath?

[Fermion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski Ah... I thought that we were talking about the deck pictured on post #217. Do you have any plans to use the area under the deck? Perhaps a patio underneath?

I don't know. I wasn't thinking of anything but a patio might be nice. You think like building a sub "deck" underneath and tying it in lower to the posts?

My wife at one point said we might lattice it but a patio might look nicer and be more useful.

[pb4uski]

Yeah, I guess you could do another deck below and have something to sit in the shade, but I was thinking just pavers on the ground.... less maintenance.

[sengsational]

Wow, that back deck is seriously "up there"w

Supporting a roof on that kind of structure is what I wanted to do, but no contractors made a bid (tried 3). I think they were scared off by the inaccessible footings under the 6x6 posts...if not big enough, that wouldn't be to code (decks don't need as much SF size as roofs). I hope you have good plans for diagonal bracing...you don't want that deck swaying any if the roof on it is tied to the house!

[Fermion]

Yes, for sure we will be adding diagonal bracing before we remove the temp adjustable braces. We were just discussing how we wanted that to look/work today.

For the footings on this deck, we used a 24" diameter plastic cone Bigfoot form attached to a 40 inch long 10 inch diameter Sonotube and filled the whole thing with concrete and 3 sections of rebar vertically with a 6 inch L bend at the base into the larger part of the 24" cone foot. We do things serious.